A New Year

The verdict is in from my last post, it was definitely my last day until freedom. There's something wonderfully liberating about sending the children to school and having time to myself without dependents. I love being able to do things without kids in tow, and without the hassle of a babysitter. And I love having my schedule back!
I had an appointment with my eye doctor yesterday (no babysitter required--yay, school!). I've been going every 3 months as he monitors my eye pressure to make sure the eye drops are keeping the glaucoma in check. So far so good, and he said it's fine to switch to 3 days a week. That will be much more cost efficient, but the issue now will be remembering to do them so infrequently!
Isn't my life so lame exciting!
Anyhow, pictures. Just 3 today.

My girlie saw this penguin snow globe craft in a book and begged me to buy some modeling clay immediately so she could make it (which I did).

Lately, my little man looks like this more often than not.

He's getting much more steady with his hand stands and he's building muscles that will help him with tumbling. He has a new male coach, a nice kid from what I saw. The other girl was good, but I think a guy will be better for Calin.
 Lastly, here's a picture of my Christmas present:

Not all of those, just the treadmill in the back there (we've turned our 4th bedroom into a workout room since we don't have a basement). I've been wanting a treadmill for many years and now that we finally have a space for it, my darling husband used his incentive bonus and hooked me up. I've had it since before Thanksgiving, he was sweet and didn't make me wait until Christmas.
But I love it! I'm horribly out of shape and this is helping me get back on track. Darin and I have been working to lose weight together, he's down 30 pounds, but I haven't been that lucky. I've had a hard time figuring out where to fit exercise into my day and I find that I get bored easily; music isn't enough, and reading is kind of difficult. Being the awesomely supportive husband that he is, Darin used the money we received for Christmas to buy me a TV for our workout room. We don't have cable so he also got a dvd player, and a little Roku box that allows me to stream netflix and other sites. I love that I can now access the BYU channel and watch old talks. It's awesome to be spiritually fed while working out, and strangely motivating! He's also getting an antenna so I have the basic channels on those days I just want to watch morning talk shows or The Price is Right or whatever. It's so much easier to keep going when my mind is distracted! That man is so good to me.
Normally, we would put all extra money toward debt or into savings, but we felt this time around we needed to invest in our health, and thereby improve our lives. So far it's definitely been worth it!